DEADOC: I think you know

SCARPETTA: I don’t.

DEADOC: you will

SCARPETTA: I saw the photos you sent. They weren’t very clear. What was your point?

But he did not answer and I felt slow and dull-witted. I had him and could not engage him. I could not keep him on. I was feeling frustrated and discouraged when another instant message appeared on my screen, this one from the squad again.

QUINCY: A.K.A., Scarpetta. Still need to go over that case with you. The self-immolation.

That’s when I realized that Quincy was Lucy. A.K.A. was Aunt Kay Always, her code for me. She was watching over me, as I had watched over her all these years, and she was telling me not to go up in flames. I typed a message back.

SCARPETTA: I agree. Your case is very troublesome. How are you handling it?

QUINCY: Just watch me in court. More later.

I smiled as I signed off and leaned back in the pillows. I did not feel quite so alone or crazed.

“Good morning.” The first nurse was back.

“Same to you.” My spirits dipped lower.

“Let’s check those vitals. How are we feeling today?”

“We’re fine.”

“You’ve got a choice of eggs or cereal.”

“Fruit,” I said.

“That wasn’t a choice. But we can probably scrape up a banana.”

The thermometer went into my mouth, the cuff around my arm. All the while she kept talking.

“It’s so cold out it could snow,” she was saying. “Thirty-three degrees. You believe that? I had frost on my windshield. The acorns are big this year. That always means a severe winter. You’re still not even up to ninety-eight degrees yet. What’s wrong with you?”

“Why wasn’t the phone left in here?” I asked.

“I’ll ask about it.” She took the cuff off. “Blood pressure’s low, too.”

“Please ask Colonel Fujitsubo to stop by this morning.”

She stood back and scrutinized me. “You going to complain about me?”

“Good heavens, no,” I said. “I just need to leave.”

“Well, I hate to tell you, but that’s not up to me. Some people stay in here as long as two weeks.”

I would lose my mind, I thought.

The colonel did not appear before lunch, which was a broiled chicken breast, carrots and rice. I hardly ate as my tension mounted, and the TV flashed silently in the background because I had turned off the sound. The nurse came back at two P.M. and announced I had another visitor. So I put on the HEPA filter mask again and followed her back down the hall into the clinic.

This time I was in Booth A, and Wesley was waiting for me on the other side. He smiled when our eyes met, and both of us picked up our phones. I was so relieved and surprised to see him that I stammered at first.

“I hope you’ve come to rescue me,” I said.

“I don’t take on doctors. You taught me that.”